Saturday 11 September 2010

Minimum wage

Back in May I wrote about The Welfare Revolution, a subject Simon Heffer returns to in todays Telegraph. He suggests we need to reduce the minimum wage in order to stimulate jobs and provide growth. But this would serve only as a dis-incentive to finding work as welfare became relatively more appealing. A perverse scramble to the bottom.

There are ways in which the minimum wage could be lowered to stimulate job creation. Raise the tax threashold to this level first - currently £11,400. As I wrote at the time:

A permanent link between these two would provide the greatest incentive for enterprise generally and getting back into work in particular. It would also enable dismantling of the overly-complex and widely abused Tax Credits system, as well as providing a fairer and more balanced tax system which benefits all taxpayers.